A giant sculpture of a hedgehog has been unveiled on Clapham Common after a survey found that a quarter of people in the UK have never seen the animal in the wild.

The 12 foot long, eight foot wide, seven foot tall structure took a team of artists two months to build, and it has been keeping hundreds of visitors to the South London park entertained since being unveiled last week.

The sculpture is mainly made from 2,000 soft wood spikes that resemble a hedgehog's spines, and a mixture of willow and coconut fibre that takes on the appearance of fur.

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Ambitious: The huge structure took a team of artists two months to build, and has been keeping hundreds of visitors to Clapham Common entertained since it was unveiled last week

Craft: The sculpture is mainly made from 2,000 soft wood spikes that resemble a hedgehog's spines, and a mixture of willow and coconut fibre that takes on the appearance of fur

The giant creature was erected to mark the launch of Sir David Attenborough’s new Natural Curiosities series on UKTV channel Watch tomorrow evening.

A survey for the TV channel found that millions of Britons claim they have never seen a large number of animals that live in the wild in the UK.

The study also found three quarters were concerned about dwindling numbers of hedgehogs and thought more should be done to protect them.

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A quarter of Britons say they have never seen a wild hedgehog, rabbit or fox, while 26 per cent claim never to have spotted a grey squirrel or frog, and 36 per cent say wild deer have eluded them.

The average Briton takes only 16 walks in the countryside each year, dramatically limiting their exposure to wildlife, the survey of 2,000 adults revealed.

As part of the Natural Curiosities programme, Sir David studies hedgehogs and even admired a small scale model of the Clapham Common sculpture before it was built.

He said: 'The hedgehog is one of Britain’s greatest natural curiosities and this sculpture is a fitting tribute to one of our best loved species.'

'It is interesting to note that many of our supposedly common species are also hard to spot in the wild.'

Star: The giant creature was erected to mark the launch of Sir David Attenborough's new Natural Curiosities series on UKTV channel Watch tomorrow evening

'The fact that a quarter of British adults have never seen a wild hedgehog suggests that we are witnessing rapidly dwindling numbers, which is a concern.

'Hedgehogs have some interesting habits and play a very useful part in keeping down all kinds of insect pests.

'What people don’t know about hedgehogs is that in the wild they have vast territories, and they roam for miles on end. And how do they mate? - very carefully!'

Andy Billet, one of the sculptors who worked on the project, said: 'This was my most challenging brief to date and we spent weeks replicating the skin tones and spikes to make the build as lifelike as possible.'

As part of their work on the programme, researchers discovered that people aged 55 and over explore the countryside the most, averaging 17.6 walks per year.

Those aged 25 to 34 go on the fewest walks at an average of 12.6, followed by 18 to 24-year-olds at 12.9.